~Leokitsune~

Tomorrow will be my father's birthday. He would have been 65 tomorrow. This is the first Oct. 10 that I won't be calling him, or sending him a funny card, or getting him a silly gift I know he'll love, since it's from me. I'm horribly afraid I'm going to cry tomorrow at work. I NEVER cry at work, I'm mortified at the very idea. But I'm sure that I'm going to cry tomorrow. I don't want to stay home, either, because that would be 100x worse. There were only two reasons to stay home in dad's eyes. If you were truly sick, or if you were on vacation. He didn't take many of those. I wish he had.

My mother will be going to the cemetery tomorrow. I felt so trite saying to her, "tell Dad I love him." I want to be there to try and say everything I should have when he was alive. I want to be there to support my mother. I wish I didn't live so far away. I know that it is only 6 hours away by car. It might as well be on the moon, for all the help I'm going to be to her tomorrow. I hope she does okay. God, I hate crying. I hate being so emo. Let me get through the rest of this year. Let me get through his birthday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. It's sad, Christmas is my favorite time of year, and I'm dreading it this year. I just want this year to be over. My sister always scolds me, tells me to "quit wishing your life away." Well, 2006 has to be one of my worst years ever. I'm ready for it to be gone.

Bobby Glenn Phillips

Clear the way for us, ok? I'm going to miss you so much.

( I went to tea at Vintage Tea yesterday. )

Well, another year older, but wiser? Who knows. I love having my birthday on the weekend. It's a good way to end a week that started so roughly. Mine is today, my sister's birthday was yesterday, but we're going to celebrate both today. We're going to Vintage Tea this afternoon to have scones and little sandwiches and yummy tea. Now that I think of it, I went to tea on my birthday last year, too. I think. The memory, she goes as the years roll on. I'll have to do a report on the teas I try, not that hardly anyone cares. *shrugs* It'll be good for my own recording purposes. The failing memory thing again. Well, hope everyone has a good weekend!

Well, I finally went to the Georgia Aquarium last Sunday. We bought annual passes when the place first opened, and only now have gotten a chance to go. I had heard many differing accounts. My boss at work thought it wasn't as good as the aquarium in TN. Another coworker had a horror story about parking. A friend of mine had nothing but rave reviews. ( Here's the rundown, WARNING, image heavy )

Got this from my sister.
List 6 favorite shows, then answer the questions. Click if you want to kill some time.
( The List (in semi-random order) )
Done. Yay.

Hurrah!

Back on ze net. Got my DSL (finally) set up in the new place last week. Why so long? Had to shop around. My DSL was free at the old place, so I was in new waters, and when swimming in unknown waters, I tend to paddle a bit slowly and cautiously. No daredevil am I! Blah.

( blather on moving )

Oh, well. At least I have dolls to play with. And a cat.^___^ Finally got a digital camera for Christmas (well, actually my sister did), and now I wish I had gotten access to one sooner! No more wasted pics, yay! Just click and delete, and worry nevermore! Of course, I had to take pics of my pretties. . .

( Chulyen and Chester )

( Cats and Dogs, Part II )

Hello. No, I'm not dead. Yet. Long time no see. Wish I could say it was because my life is uneventful, but that isn't the case. Damn it. My life is TOO eventful right now. I'm supposed to be packing right now. . . >>;; Well, went to a doll meet today. We (my sister and I) decided that we couldn't work and stress too much, so we took a break and went to look at pretty dollies and talk to people, forget about the hassle of moving. Blargh. Here's a few pics:
( Meet up at Winans )
28 dolls, and 20(ish) owners, all crammed into a little cozy upstairs coffeehouse loft. It was fun, and a great distraction from the misery of moving. At least, I don't have as many heavy book boxes this time around. After the last move, I got rid of 80% of my hard covers and stashed a lot at my parent's house. Still, we are looking at between 20-30 boxes of books alone, if my calculations are correct. We'll see when I finish packing them up. *SIGH* Back to work, I guess.

I don't know why my mind works like this, but I always seem to get bit by the writing bug around times like this, when I really have NO time. I'm such a mess. I've been looking over my unfinished stuff, some original material, as well as my fanfics. If everything goes as scheduled, I might pick those threads back up again sometime real soon, after we get moved. We have to be out of our current place by 2/14, so I'm sure that will roll around sooner than I would like. What a way to spend Valentine's Day, huh? No help for it, though. I love this place, but they aren't extending leases after August, and I am NOT moving in the summer again. No way in hell.

Maybe once I'm settled in the new place, I'll be able to catch up with everyone, face-to-face and over the net. I feel bad I haven't been able to carve out time to read and comment on Claudia's, Stace's and others' LJs. Hope everyone's doing okay. That's one of my new year resolutions, to keep better track of everyone. And not to let this move half-kill me, like the last one did. . .

Another satisfying Halloween is under my belt, we did an Edwardian-Victorian/City of Lost Children/Brothers Quay mini event. The air is suitably fall crisp, and we ate dinner by candlelight. Now the witch is about to put herself to bed for her much-needed beauty sleep. Her feline familiar is curled on the bed waiting, and her broom is tucked away until next year. Happy Halloween, ghosts and ghouls.

Well, well, well. I've certainly been a stranger, haven't I? I can't believe I haven't written anything here since September. I bet you thought I was dead, didn't you, LJ? Not so, not so. What have I been doing lately? Work's been crazy. We have one guy out on medical leave, and we were short-handed to begin with. Ugh! The phone! It won't stop ringing! ARGHHHHH!

Things haven't been all bad, though. I went to a doll meet in Piedmont Park yesterday, and had a great time.( doll meet stuff )

( Halloween )

( Jury duty whining )

Once I have a little more time, I'll read through some LJs, get caught up on my email, try and get caught up with everyone. Hope everyone's been doing okay!

More fun with quizzes. No deep thought for me today. Sorry. *WARNING* Lots of quizzes under the cut. LOTS. Yes, I goofed off most of the weekend, can't you tell?( quiz me )

Hee. Found this on Yahoo news. It amused me. Probably something wrong with me for being so amused, but oh well. Made me think of a certain pre-cog we all know and love. Here's the link. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050919/od_nm/traders_dc

But if the link's down, click the cut: ( Sounds tailor-made for Brad Crawford )

It's September 11, 2005. Four years since the events that "changed America forever." Did it? Sometimes I think it did. Other times, it seems America is as it was four years ago. I haven't done my usual quiet reflection on the events of 9/11. I haven't felt it this year. The events of Katrina has numbed me to the tragedy. Is the Katrina tragedy greater than the one in New York on 9/11/01? We still don't know the final death toll of Katrina. But can we evaluate a disaster on just death toll?

I don't want to compare the two. But I do. It's my nature, I suppose. Sometimes I think that America is acting spoiled. Other countries deal with larger tragedies. The tsunami of last year in Asia. All the people that live in war zones and abject poverty we can't even comprehend all over the world, where life is a gamble every day. Those under oppressive dictatorships, where they fear for their lives and the lives of their families if they dare say or do the wrong thing. We have it easy in comparison. In a strange, perverse way, it has opened my eyes to how lucky I am. I suppose this is what they always term, "counting your blessings."

I don't have to worry about snipers shooting me on the way to work. Poison gas on public transportation when I try to get from place to place. Suicide bombers staging their final, fatal demonstration of protest in my nightclub, coffee shop, or grocery store. Watching what I say, and always looking in suspicion on strangers. I can say what I want about anything, anywhere, and not worry if my loved ones will be there when I go home. An unexpected knock on the door at night is just a simple mistake or a surprise visit from a friend, not a source of terror. There are so many things that I don't have to worry about that are terrors for others elsewhere.

Yet it still is MY country 9/11 and Katrina happened to. Does the events in other places diminish what is happening to the homeless, the dead, the ill, the dying in New Orleans and its surrounding areas? No. Just because one person's suffering isn't 'as great' as another's does not diminish the suffering for that victim. They still have to struggle with it, and we still have to help them any way we can. I feel saturated with the pictures, the articles, the accusations and the strong emotions. I felt angry, sad, bitter, and finally numb. Numbness is usually a blessed state, when things shut down that can no longer cope. But I want to cope. I don't feel right that I'm now looking at the devastation, the despair, the need, the yelling, the finger-pointing, and am resisting thinking about it. I read the articles, but more out of habit.

I'm trying to break out of this apathy. I guess I need to go back and read some fiction set in New Orleans or LA. Does that sound flip? I don't mean it to be so. I think I need to reconnect with New Orleans, try to get my beleaguered brain to quit dwelling on the tragedy that it is now and remember what it used to be. Maybe then I can find the hope that it will become the beautiful, exotic and unique city that it used to be for me. I want to immerse myself in New Orleans of yesteryear, to hope for the New Orleans of tomorrow. New Orleans has always been a city proud of its colorful, rich and wonderful history. Much of that has survived. I think that history will be the core of her resurrection out of the flood-waters, an aquatic cousin of the fabled phoenix. I want to see New Orleans spread her wings and show off her pretty Mardi Gras-style plumage once more, to see her shake off the water and dry in the sun of tomorrow's day.

What am I trying to say? I think I've lost my thread. That's okay. I think that I've gotten to where I want to be. I just hope that I will see New Orleans get back to where it wants to be.

Scanned in a couple of pics of my kitty, Chester. ( Click here for kitty cute )

That's all for now. I have tons of pictures, but can't seem to find any others at the moment. I'm glad I found the zen one, that one's my favorite.^.^

( You know you're from GA/Atlanta when. . . )

Well, with the humor out of the way, lets go on to other things. Most of the time, I like being a Southerner. I like living in the South. People are (usually) pretty nice around here. The flowers are amazing, and the climate temperate. The climate. That brings me to the one thing I loathe about living in the heart of the South. The heat. "It's not the heat, it's the humidity." How many times I've heard that one. And damn them all, it's true. I lived as a small child in Texas, and while that is hotter than blazes in the summer, it was a dry heat, like opening an oven. Uncomfortable, but tolerable.

Heat in Atlanta is like a malicious joke played on its hapless residents. I went shopping with my sister yesterday. The shopping area was connected by a covered parking area, sheltering us from direct sun as we went from one store to the next. But the heat still found us, chewed us up, shook us like a terrier does a rag, and left me with a bad headache, no energy, and a bad attitude. I was dripping with sweat, something I despise unless I'm exercising. Walking between air-conditioned stores in the shade shouldn't be such an ordeal.

I hate summer. When I was a child, there was only two things to be happy about summer for. My birthday, and being out from school. When someone, usually an ignorant Northerner, coos, "I LOVE summer!" I want to chain them to a post in the middle of a blacktop parking lot in mid-August and smirk at them while they roast. From the comfort of an air-conditioned building, of course. Summers around here are not suitable for man or beast. How did people ever live around here without AC?

I was talking with some of my co-workers last week about people in the past. I was arguing that people from a hundred or so years ago must have been tougher. We were talking about surgery without anesthetic, but I think that the whole AC thing is another point I could have used in the debate. "Come on, they didn't have AC, for Christ's sake!" Being long-term GA residents, if not natives, that probably would have shut them up sooner. Wished I had thought of it then. But is June-Sept in Georgia totally without merit? No, not really. Is any place perfect? I love Georgia the rest of the year. I'll willing pay three to four months inside to stay. Now, off to do more productive things. Bye, ya'll.

Happy unbirthday to you, happy unbirthday to you, happy unbirthday, dear Staaace, happy unbirthday, to youuuu! And many more! Hope this year's special day is one of the best.^.~ It's your special day, so hope you feel like a queen for the day. Your Highness. *bows* Please pull up a seat and have a cup of tea, maybe a bite of cake or two. Enjoy.

Sincerely,

The Mad Hatter & the March Hare

( Quiz me, quiz you, clicky! )

Well, this is where I ramble on about little of consequence. I've goofed off most of the day, might as well wrap up the night with more inanity. Not insanity. Inanity. ( Let the inanity commence! )

Time again to post up more quiz results. ( You know you wanna click )

If you aren't interested in anime or Miyazaki films, you might not want to click on the following. Warning. QUITE long, and possibly spoilerish:

( Howl's Moving Castle )

Now, on to the meme! We all know you love 'em!

Make anything that you've seen a part of italic, things you've seen all of bold, and the ones you own you underline. If you take it for your own journal add three more to the end.

( Anime Meme )

I was shocked at how many I haven't seen. Guess I got to catch up on that, too. I'm never going to catch up on all that I need to. My reading list, my writing, my chick flicks, my flicks in general; I'm getting buried!